The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1887-10-12
IN The BRAVE Days OF OLD.

IN ht 0kAVt UAIS Uf UlU,
The picture hangs upon the wall OF
INV sitting-room the room that over
looks the Channel. From its windows,
when the atmosphere is favorable, L
can see the French coast-line; and
when there is a gale, and the steamers
are blowing heavily in the waves, and
the sail-vessels are scudding under
bare poles, / love to take my sewing or
my book into one of the great bow
windows, and enjoy the grand view.
My father built the house so near the
sea, because he had been sailor all
his life, and he could not live far away
from saltwater. When he died, the
place came to me; and the man l
married happened to hold an important
position in the revenue service, and 1T
was precisely the thing that we should
live in this dear old home. So my
children were born here, grew up here,
and two are buried in the Cliff Gene
terry, over yonder. They, the living,
are all married now, and living in
houses of their own, from Lands End
to :. ohm O'Groat's;" but each summer
the old home is full of them and their
families, and my dear grandchildren,
sometimes a dozen of them together
make me young again with their mirth
and laughter and charming child-ways
And the picture?
1t hung there in my own childhood;
1T has hung there ever since. | thought
1t the bravest, handsomest picture that
could be; and not a child nor grand
child of mine but has been attracted to
1T from the time that anything was no.
ticed.
Nc ordinary picture is it, you may
be sure! If it had been made in these
cheap days of big imperial photo
graphs, and colored Autographs, and
gaudy chromos, there would be moth
ing about it worth five minutes notice.
But if you look in the lower left-hand
corner, you will find the mark, -. II.
pink, 1885, and that, l may tell you,
was the mark of Sir Joshua Reynolds,
the most famous painter of the reigns
of the Four Georges.
so it is painting, and no common
one either. Those colors were laid on
by master hand. 1t is of grand size
six feet by four and a half. L could
turn my eyes from it and describe
every detail of it. A sailor-boy of
twelve, hatless, and fair of face as the
pictures of the youthful Byron, sits up
on the high main cross-trees of the
ship, his back to the mast, his left hand
grasping one of the ropes by which he
has assembled to this dizzy height, his
left foot braced against cross-ropes,
his right foot swinging, his right hand
resting on the timber of the cross-tree.
His faxen hair and the loose ends of
his neckerchief are blowing out; yet
there is not wind enough below to ruffle
the ocean, for, far down and far away
to the horizon, you see it stretching
rs placid as pond. An albatross is fly
ing about the sh p-the only other liv-
ing creature in sight. There he sits,
,clinging to the rope, his blue eyes gaz-
ing off over the wide Ocean-O, so
eagerly.
For years past they have come to
me, my children and grandchildren,
and begged me to tell them about this
handsome little sailor.
"There must be some story about
him, has been the common remark.
Indeed there is, my dear, and good
one. You shall hear it. '"
The time has come when it has been
told TO all of them; even to little Min
ME, who has not yet given up her
dolls. So now the great, kind public
shall be my children, and for the last
time will relate the story of this brave
tsailor-boy.
When Captain Jacob Converse was
about to leave London with the good
ship Cynthia, laden with a great vare-
fy of fancy articles for traffic with the
natives of the far-off islands of the
South Pacific, he bethought him that
he had not secured him cabin-boy.
And what dye want of cabin
boy?" asked his gruff mate, Mr.. Kinds.
A cabin-boy Is mostly little vaga-
bond who learns nothing aboard ship
but to be lazy, to steal the goodies out
of your locker, and to tell tales of you
60 the fo'castle. ] wouldn't have such
= fellow about.
But the Captain and Mr.. Kinds diff
Iered on this subject, as they did on
almost every other. Captain Converse
was mild and merciful man, who
knew something by experience of the
hard lot of the sailor, and wished to
make it easier. Mr.. Hardy, on the
contrary, had just one theory
about Jack ar-namely, that he
was worthless guzzler ashore,
and a lazy, sulky animal afloat,
and that all that could be got out of
him at sea must be got at the ropes
end. He never gave an order but with
IN oath, and the day on voyage that
he did not knock down q seaman, either
with his fist or handspike, was a rare
day. Captain Converse deplored his
bad temper and savage ways, and had
often seriously talked with him on the
subject; but he could not be changed.
The fact was, the Captain was too easy
. man TO be in authority anywhere, and
especially over such tyrannical brute
% Hardy was. The crews of his ships
suffered everything, because the Cap
<nip had not force of character enough